I have a 62 vette that I bought back in 1977 that was set up as a gasser with I-beam bolted up the the frame, the hood was cut out for a tunnel ram or injection. The cowl vent was bolted in place and the lower rocker panel behind the front wheel was cut for headers I guess, the car was originally red and then painted orange when it was raced. I bought it in Connecticut and figure it was raced in New England, I would like to find out the history on this car. Does anyone remember this car being raced in the early 70's also the clutch pedal was bent over to the left away from the brake pedal.
I have one picture of it when the guys i bought it from painted it blue, I'll post it in a few days. The hard top was gray and someone had a black vinyl covering put on it with a long Chevrolet sticker in the back window.
Here are a couple of pictures of the Half Breed Corvette from California. I think the body was for sale at a swap meet a few years ago but I haven't heard anything else about it.
Here is the gasser, notice how far back the blocks are so I could keep the tires off the ground so I could start unbolting the front end from the I- beam
Seadog-good looking 62. It would be great to track down the history of the car although that can be difficult sometimes since there were a pretty good number of early Vettes that ran without all of the fanfare of the class winners at big events. Sounds like you are removing the front end spacers. What are your plans for the car?-Jim
Elgringo the last three pics (black Midwest car, Prontito and Emerson Brothers) are all the same car. It was one of my favorites and ran at my local tracks. I talked to the original owner a few years ago. Great running big block car. As to the evolution, from street car it was turned into a Woodward street racer with a 421 Pontiac (four speed car) built by George DeLorean. The owner got too many tickets and turned it into a strip car running the Pontiac through 65 and then in 66 they switched to the 427 Chevy with a four speed. It was sold after the 67 season and ran the BBC with a torqueflite in 68 and either late in 68 or early 69 they went with a clutch flite. I don't remember it losing although I am sure it did.Great car-Jim
Cool shot Jim!! Was it a hard charger with the 421? At one time my Corvette in the avatar ran a 427 chevy with a muncie 4 speed. I found an exibition of speed ticket under the drivers seat.
Ron Reader who owned the car told me George DeLorean built a 389 and a 421 for the car and he switched them back and forth. He told me it was extremely fast on the street but the camshafts lasted only a couple of weeks. He tried to talk DeLorean into a camshaft that lasted longer but no deal. He told me he was extremely competitive at the strip and had a lot of fun running and smack talking with Bill Coon (57 T-Bird "Bill's Speed Shop"-when Bill Coon was running the 427 high riser-prior to the SOHC). I watched the Prontito configuration and Coon's 427 SOHC go at a number of times in the late 60s. I asked Ron why the switch to the BBC in 66 and he told me it was supposed to be the hot ticket. The Pontiac was good but the BBC was supposed to be the way to go. They took the car to Indy in 67 but had problems with the car and they ended up putting the 427 BBC in Kanners AM/SP car and Kanners won class and street eliminator so the engine was probably a good running piece. Kanners drove the 57 for Reader in 66 and I watched him run the car a number of times after that although he was not the go-to driver (Reader and Kanners may not have seen eye to eye all the time). I have talked to another guy that built a 57 Vette with a 421 Pontiac and it is still around in a garage but the owner is secretive and does not want to sell the car. Would be a cool piece for sure.
Jim,Thanks for the information, this was the golden age of drag racing and I bet it was cool to be there. Looking back now it was amazing. It was before my time but I try to learn as much about it as possible. Maybe if you drove your Corvette over and offered the guy with the 421 Corvette a ride he would loosen up and talk to you. One other idea would be to offer to help him find parts so that he could get it running again.
He has come to a couple of our club meetings where I have taken my car-believe me I have talked to him and he is knows of my interests in old drag Vettes but he is pretty tight lipped. The car is supposed to be complete-just dusty. I will run into him again and work on him some more but he does not even entertain the thought as of now. Says even if I wanted it there is a long line of guys that want it. Then you get into a bidding war which often don't end well unless you have deep pockets. Kind of reminds me they are out there, although I keep telling myself I have enough projects and not enough years to finish them.
In the late 70's I sold a 57 body & frame as a non roller (no front suspension but provisions for an I-beam) and I have always wondered what happened to it. Body was painted white and the interior was empty/barren to run on the strip. Unfortunately no pictures. Sold it from my house on E. Walton Blvd. in Pontiac, Michigan. At that time already had a 60,62 and 66 Vette all running. so the 57 just wasn't going to happen. Now I'm just down to just 1 a 1960. basket case. Movin/on
That is the picture I took of the car back in 1977 Jim when I bought it, they delivered it to my parents house and I started to convert it from the drag car to a street car. We had a spare parts car that I was able to take stock parts from, my dad had a 61 and my brother had a 62 so my father came across a 62 in the local junk yard. And it was a good thing because the gasser had to have a lot of parts, I cursed most of the 32 bolts. In the I-bean that I had to remove and the black 62 as my member photo is the car today, it still has the hole in the hood that I covered up with the scoop but I would love to find out more on the car when the color was orange .
You might check to see if the dragstrips in the area where the car came from have a website with vintage racing pictures. I remember seeing pictures of an orange 61-62 Corvette. I think it might have been from New Hampshire. Imagine that today four 61-62 corvettes in one family.
Wicked thread. Now we are talkin'. I love modified, rip snortin', root tootin', eyes waterin', fueled Vettes of this era. More please!!!
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